Dating Websites
Hobby Groups
The success of the existing social networks like LinkedIn, Myspace and others demonstrates the enormous demand for this type of online communication, and yet, many people find the existing venues to be too general and broad, whereas online communities bring like-minded peers together to connect around a common point of interest. More and more users express a desire to join groups with immediate relevance to their interests and share their experiences and views with others who feel the same way.
No matter what your website is dedicated to, you can create an online hobby group, turn your occasional visitors into permanent residents, and greatly increase your website traffic and revenues. For instance, if you run a website devoted to sea travels, by establishing an online community you give your visitors an opportunity to discuss and compare their travels experiences, search for fellow travelers and companions, etc., giving them the reason to come again and again and send the link to your website to their contacts.
Professional Use
If your primary source of income is selling products and services through your website, establishing an online community will help you to build loyalty to your brand, your products and services, and the effect of it is all the more powerful because it is absolutely natural, achieved organically, and based on your users’ natural desire to communicate with like-minded individuals who share common interests and backgrounds. The more your visitors converse online, the more they learn about your brand, products and services. The longer they stay, the more they buy. Your brand and online presence therefore become integrated with their daily lives, and increased loyalty means increased revenues.
Having online community on your website is a way to differentiate yourself from your competitors because it demonstrates that you stay on the cutting edge, continually seeking new methods of improving your products and services. It is very likely that a social network, now viewed as a nice add-on feature, will soon become a necessary component of every popular website.
Another important, though often underestimated benefit of having an online community on your website is that you are the first to find out about your users’ and customers’ experiences, expectation, needs and wants. An online network is an unparalleled source of customer feedback, which at the same time serves to reduce your customer support costs, because an online community, with even a few active members, quickly turns into a living, changing and constantly added FAQ.
Being an excellent marketing channel, much less expensive than advertising but more efficient by far, your online community also becomes your source of user-generated content, and your website is thus consistently updated, which serves to further improve your visibility search engine rankings.